Thursday, February 26

Ready to go at our 1st competition!

Our pit is set up, our robot is in good shape, and we're looking forward to our first practice matches.  Wish us luck! - at Nashua High School South  (36 Riverside, Nashua, NH)

Thursday, February 19

The Build Season Is Over!

The build season is officially over for Team 2342. The construction of Robot Beta is complete. On Tuesday, 17 February, the team finished building Robot Beta, now named Recyclone. After this, they bagged and tagged the robot. The members of all of the subteams worked very hard to ensure that the robot was finished on time.

The coding subteam is continuing their testing work using Robot Alpha-Gamma (now referred to as "Spare Parts"). The coding for the autonomous period is partially complete. The coding subteam has determined that "simple autonomous" mode is effective. They will continue to work on the coding for the "complex autonomous" mode. Although the mechanical and wiring subteams built the robot, the coding subteam also played an integral part in "building" the functional robot. Without effective code, the robot would essentially be unusable.

While the mechanical, wiring, and coding subteams worked on the robot, the business subteam continued to edit the Chairman's essay and video. The deadline for submissions for the Chairman's award was 19 February, 2015 at 12:00 pm. The members of the business subteam edited the video and essay extensively in order to ensure that they were ready for submission.

The art subteam of the business subteam has been sewing the costume for Team Phoenix. They have been cutting and sewing a multitude of feathers onto the headpiece and shoulders of the mascot costume. Thanks to the artists on the team for turning a STEM oriented group into a STEAM oriented one!

The members of Team 2342 will continue to meet in the next few weeks. The Granite State District Event will take place on 27 and 28 February at Nashua High School South.

Thursday, February 12

Robot Alpha-Gamma Is Under Construction!

In the past month, Team Phoenix has been working hard in order to ensure that the first robot was completed on time. Nicknamed Robot Beta, the team's first robot with a metal attachment is nearly complete, and is functioning properly. The team has been building their second robot, nicknamed Robot Alpha/Gamma. This robot initially had a wooden test attachment. The team is currently in the process of building a second metal attachment, which will be attached to the drive train of Robot Alpha.

Both Robot Beta and Robot Gamma will be physically identical if all goes well. The metal attachments are slightly different from the original wooden test attachment, but essentially function the same way. Metal hooks are used to lift the recycling totes and stack them. On the metal attachments, there are more hooks to lift each tote. The metal attachments can stack four totes, while the wooden attachment could stack three.

The mechanical, wiring, and coding subteams have been hard at work during the past few weeks. The mechanical subteam has been responsible for the majority of the physical building of the robot. The wiring subteam has been working with the mechanical subteam in order to ensure that the electrical portion of the robot is working properly. The coding subteam has been testing the first robot, and will continue to test and modify their code for the autonomous and teleoperated periods of the match.

The business subteam has been working on the Chairman's video and essay. They have also been completing the questions for the Entrepreneurship and Woodie Flowers Awards. On 07 February, the business subteam completed the first take of the Chairman's video. They will complete a second version of the video this Saturday, 14 February. The team is also sewing the Phoenix mascot :)

On 11 February, a handful of the members of Team 2342 taught a class at the Academy for Science and Design's SPARK Day. Students in grades 7-12 learned about FIRST Robotics, and what it means to be a part of an FRC team. They had the chance to learn about this year's challenge. The team also brought Robot Alpha to ASD on Wednesday. Students had the chance to drive the robot and stack recycling totes, just as Robot Beta and Robot Gamma will do in the competition on 27 February.

Friday, February 6

Update: 06 February, 2015

Team 2342 is in the process of constructing both the first and second robots. The first robot will soon be complete. The mechanical subteam is almost finished with the first metal attachment. They have completed the test attachment, which was made out of wood. The mechanical subteam is also working on the second robot (which will also have a metal attachment). The first dragger has been built and mounted on the first robot. The construction of the second attachment will commence today.

As with any team, one of the greatest challenges of the season lies not in creating the robot itself, but in testing the robot. The coding subteam has been testing the robot as well as the code for the robot. The code for the attachment is complete: however, the code for the robot is not yet finished. They will continue to test both the robot and the code. The wiring subteam will also be involved in the testing: if something within the control panel malfunctions, the wiring subteam will fix it.

This year, the team planned to have completed at least one robot before the build season was complete, in order to allow more time for testing. In previous years, there was much less time for the coding subteam to test the robot. Due to the large size of the team, tasks can be completed in a quicker manner.

Link to the Build Plan